Thriller Trailers - A Teen Audience

Trailer 1: 

Characters: The trailer shows that the film is based on a large group of mixed late teens. Using characters that are the same age group as the audience allows them to relate to the similar characteristic, which is why teenagers are more likely to be engaged. In this trailer, the main character is a male, however the majority of the group happen to be female characters. As a male is the main character of the narrative, the audience automatically gives him the role of the 'hero', since the narrative of the film is he wants to find and save his missing sister. THe female characters of the trailer are mainly seen to be screaming or in some kind of trouble, they're distressed. This gives them the characteristic of the victims and the the main male character is going to have to save them as well as his sister. In the beginning of the trailer, the main male character is seen talking about how he wants to find his missing sister, making him appear rational to the audience as he is planning in some way. This, however, also presents the female characters to be nothing but characters that get themselves into dangerous trouble and scream about it. 

Themes&Settings: The main themes seen are, paranoia, fear and betrayal. Paranoia comes from the fact that they are in a woods on their own and odd things are happening to them so they become paranoid to what might be out there after them. This also links in with the theme of fear as they a frightened of what might happen to them if something really is out there coming for them. Betrayal comes from the thought that they cannot explain why these weird things are happening to them or why their friend has been killed, so they begin to blame each other on the events. These themes are often used in thriller because as an audience we are able to relate to them as people. 
The main setting of the narrative is in a woods, to show isolation from the real world and how it would be difficult for them to escape. However the film is still set in a modern setting, which also allows the audience to engage and connect to the characters. 

Emotions: Shock, curiosity and excitement are the main emotions the trailer wants to make the audience feel. Shock would come from the jump scares within the trailer, curiosity would come from being in the unknown, not knowing what is causing all the fear in the characters makes the audience want to find out what is happening. Excitement comes from the thrill of the unknown and the dramatic jump scares and the danger. As it is typically something out of the audiences comfort zone, it gives the the sense of excitement and adventure. 

Camera Editing: The majority of the trailer is film in 1st person point of view, the view that someone is recording on a video camera. This allows the audience to be put into the position of the character, to feel how they are feeling. Throughout the trailer there are many closeups of the characters faces, it allows the audience to see the emotion on the characters faces when something significant happens. When the main character says "I think that might be my sister" the camera is in shot of a closeup which shows the significance of his emotion when he assumes its his sister. He has a straight but concerned look on his face, showing us how he feels about the situation. There is also another significant closeup of one of the female characters, when she is trapped in the old house in the wood, running around. The closeup of her face shows how terrified she is to be in there, also how dirty and bloody her face is also links into why she is feeling this way. It shows the audience that she has been in danger and has had a troubled escape.



Editing: In the beginning of the trailer the pace of the trailer is quiet slow, allowing the audience to gain some knowledge the narrative. In the beginning of the trailer the audience gains the knowledge of who the main character is, what their motive is, the setting of the narrative and the featuring characters. As the trailer progresses, the pace starts to speed up following the events happening, as more and more odd and scary things are happening to the characters the pace picks up. The rhythm of the cuts match the rhythm of the music, more quick cuts are show whilst someone is the the scary house and the music is also faster and dramatic. There are moments when the screen cuts to black for example, when the screen cuts to black and we hear the familiar voice of the main character saying "I'm so sorry". As the audience we have no idea what he could be saying the for, which adds the the mystery of the narrative and give an emotional effect on the audience. 

Lighting&Colours: The use of the torch light in first person view makes it easy to highlight something important as it is a use of direct light. For example, when someone is running through the house we see the torch light on the walls of the house, showing how damaged it is and hand prints on the wall, showing the audience that someone has been here before and were probably in danger or someone else had been living there. As the light is coming from the characters the audience see what they see, allowing them to be in the place of the character and know what it would be like to be in that position. There is a scene where we see light from outside the house beaming into the house. This cold, blue light represents to the audience 'the difference in worlds'. The character being trapped in the house can feel as if they are in a different world to what is going on to the outside, however the light reassures the character and audience that they are still linked to the real world and that there is a chance to escaping. The mute colours of the light shining through allows the red blood on the walls and characters faces to stand out more. In the beginning of the trailer, there is plenty of neutral light before we as the audience see anything bad happen, this suggests that the neutral light connotes safety. 



Sound: When a key lines or moment happens in the trailer, the music that is playing stops. This is to show the audience the significance of this line or moment. For example, when the main character says "I think that might be my sister." the music stops so that the audience know what he is saying is important to the narrative. The music used in the background of the trailer sets the mood of the narrative. The music used in this trailer consists of eerie violins an loud sounds, the eeriness of the violins are used in the build up to something bad in the trailer, which causes tension in the audience, the loud sounds happen when something dramatic is happening on screen which adds to the effect of jump scares. It is also used to exaggerate when something happens. As the music is in rhythm with cuts, the pace of the music picks up when the scene is cutting or when someone is running, exaggerating the moment. The dialogue in the trailer help to tell the audience about why the characters are doing what they are doing and some background information. The dialogue is more heavy in the beginning of the trailer as it is introducing the narrative, it becomes less towards the end and more of short lines and screams as the trailer cannot give too much away and it creates tension and suspense in the audience when they are confused to what is happening. 

Mis-en-scene: In the beginning of the trailer, each character are seen to wear a brightly coloured piece of clothing, however as the trailer progresses, their clothes become less colourful and become more grey toned. This shows to the audience the change the events are having on the characters, the grey colour adds to the mood of the mute colours. A key thing to the trailer is that the characters are recording the experience on a camera, the audience is aware of this as the characters are documenting what they are doing and when someone is running, the camera jolts about as if someone was holding a camera whilst running. The yellow tents contrast greatly to the dark forest, the bright colour of the tents can connote safety, we can link this in to the fact that when the characters were safe in the beginning of the trailer, they were in brightly coloured clothing and the setting and atmosphere was very bright. The use of the fire shows that the characters are trying to bring light and warmth to the bad situation they're in. The oddly shaped things in the trees link in with the logo of the trailer, they represent the Blair Witch, which is why they are significant to the audience and is why they are able to identify what they might be. 

Graphics: The graphics that are shown in the trailer are all reviews of the film from horror movie websites. The reviews are a form of promise of pleasure, they tell the audience what they should expect to get out of the film. The fact that the reviews come from movie websites and not newspapers suggests that the film is targeted to a younger audience as they tend to use the internet more often than the older generation. There is also other important information such as the release date, telling the audience when the film will be released. Also, on the ending screen, the trailer shows links to their twitter and website. This is a form of viral hype, it gets the audience to promote the film as well as get involved with the 'hype' of the film. It also suggests that the film is aimed at a younger target audience as they often use twitter more. 

Trailer 2: 

Characters: The main character of this narrative appears to be the well-known actor, Emily Blunt. The use of well-know actors and actresses can widen or have a ready set audience for the film, Emily Blunt starring in previous big films such as Sicario and Into The Woods means she would have already has a fan base from those previous films, meaning they will want to watch her in this new film. Also the use of well-known stars shows to the audience that the producers have put some amount of money into the production of the film and suggests that the film will be good. The rest of the cast consist mainly of white characters, this implies that the film is mainly based around the middle class as stereotypically, this is how society sees race and class. Oddly the main characters to the narrative are women. This is odd because women are not often given a main role in crime thrillers. We have Emily Blunt as the main character of the narrative, she believe she knows what might have happened to the missing women. The missing women being the second important role as she is the reason why there is a crime in the area, she is the one everyone wants to find and know what happened to her. The third women is the detective who is seen questioning Emily Blunt about the missing girl, she is the one who can also be portrayed as the protagonist as well as Emily Blunts character. Her character is seen as the protagonist as she seems to be helping with finding the missing woman, however as the trailer progresses, she begins to become an unstable character, the more the detective questions her about the missing woman, Megan, we see scenes of Emily Blunts character looking distressed in the mirror, smashing a mirror and wiping what may ave been a message written in lipstick of another mirror, whereas in the beginning her character appeared to be less distressed but more concerned. the reason the audience is confused to whether or not she is the protagonist is because the detective asks her "did you murder Megan Hipwill?" and the Blunt's character replies with "no." but the audience then see someone washing blood of their hands, which confused and intrigues the audience. The male characters don't appear to have much significance other than when Blunt's character says "she was with this man" and we are shown to quick shots of two different men, suggesting they are linked in to how may have seen Megan last (or if they could have killed her.) As the majority of characters are of women who appear to be in their 30's and the themes are based on lust and relationships (as well as crime), it suggest the target audience is probably late teens and older women around the same age.

Themes&Settings: The main themes of this trailer are love/lust, mind games, paranoia and a possible murder. It is clear to the audience that lust/love is a theme as we see the Megan character is constantly seen having sexual interactions with men throughout. Mind games are happening within the character and within the audience as everyone is left unsure of what has actually happened the Megan.